The 14-year-old captain of a local youth football team was selling water and Gatorade outside the University of Florida football stadium during Saturday’s game to earn money for his spot on the team when police said he was robbed of all his cash.
Ja’Qorey Cogman, a student at Abraham Lincoln Middle School, and his mother said the generosity of strangers made up the shortfall after she posted on social media over the weekend about the family’s dilemma. The family is hoping for additional contributions to help pay for new cleats, a mouth guard and chin strap.
Police arrested Leonard Bernard Mack Jr., 45, of Gainesville. He faces a felony charge of robbery by sudden snatching and remained in the Alachua County Jail on Monday. Mack had just been released from state prison June 24 after serving more than nine years behind bars on robbery and burglary charges, according to court records.
Cogman, a defensive end, was raising money for his team, the Terriers, organized through the regional Boys & Girls Club. He had raised $76 of the $150 needed to secure a position on the roster.
Mack tried to trick Cogman by saying that he was a friend of his mother’s and she wanted the teen to give him $30, police said. Cogman said he needed to check first with his mother, when Mack grabbed the whole $76 and quickly walked away.
Police examined security video of the incident and tracked Mack inside the football stadium, where they arrested him, according to court records. The university on Monday banned Mack from campus for three years. Police said he acknowledged he didn’t know the teen or his mother.
Mack could not be reached for comment on Monday. Under sheriff’s office rules, defendants awaiting trial in jail can’t be interviewed without written permission from their defense lawyer and a senior jail official. Mack was still in the process of being appointed a public defender.
Cogman said he never got his $76 back, putting him back to square one to pay for his football dues. He was worried he might lose his position without the money and disappoint his teammates.
”If I can’t play, it’s going to let the other kids down,” he said in an interview.
Donors helped him Sunday and Monday, said his mother, Reshard Scott. She’s been missing work due to an injury, she said. A CEO of a local real estate company, who asked not to be identified, donated $150.
Mack registered to vote as a Democrat in Alachua County earlier this summer, just after his release from prison, even though he still owes more than $1,000 in unpaid court costs and fines from his prior felony convictions, according to voter registration and court records. That makes him ineligible under Florida law to register or cast a ballot.